by The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has officially ended its federal lawsuit accusing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of wrongfully deporting a U.S. citizen child and her Honduran mother and sister.
DHS called the case “baseless lawfare,” asserting that no U.S. citizens were deported. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reaffirmed this during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, stating, “No U.S. citizens have been deported. These claims are false.”
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Assistant Secretary, said in a statement, “The ACLU dropped its lawsuit based on the false claim that DHS deported a U.S. citizen.” She explained that the Honduran mother, identified as Jenny Carolina Lopez-Villela, voluntarily chose to take her 2-year-old daughter, born in the United States, with her to Honduras when she was deported.
Lopez-Villela had illegally entered the U.S. three times between 2019 and 2021, according to DHS. After being detained in April during a routine immigration check-in in New Orleans, she was removed from the country and chose to bring her U.S.-born daughter with her.
DHS emphasized that parents facing deportation are allowed to decide whether their U.S.-born children accompany them. “Parents who are here illegally can take control of their departure,” DHS said. “They can use the free CBP Home app to self-deport and later return the legal way to pursue the American dream.”
The ACLU initially filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, representing Trish Mack, a friend of the mother. The ACLU alleged that three U.S. citizen children were wrongfully deported, but DHS confirmed only one of Lopez-Villela’s daughters was a U.S. citizen.
The third child, reportedly a 7-year-old with cancer, was also taken to Honduras after the child’s pregnant mother was deported in April. DHS did not confirm the child’s citizenship status.
The ACLU had previously criticized the deportations as “deeply disturbing,” citing concerns about due process and claiming the families were denied access to legal counsel before being deported on an early morning flight.
While the ACLU has not issued a new comment since dropping the lawsuit, the case has reignited the national conversation about immigration enforcement, parental rights, and protections for U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
